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To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com>
cc: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>, Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>,
        freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: Is this (SCSI) tape drive compatible with FreeBSD? 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Sat, 30 Aug 1997 22:00:59 MST."
             <2236.873003659@time.cdrom.com> 
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Date: Sun, 31 Aug 1997 14:39:19 +0930
From: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>
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> [redirected to -hardware only; TK-50s hardly need to be discussed in
> multiple lists :)]
> 
> > *chuckle*  DLT is a direct descendant of the venerable TK-50.  Take a 
> > look at one sometime.  8)
> 
> Cool!  Does this mean that the tape followers also frequently become
> detached and stuck in the drive where they may only be removed by unit
> disassembly? :-)

I dunno; I only read up on DLTs recently when we were asked to quote on 
a direct-to-disk recording solution for the next Leonid(e?)s shower.
(As an add-on to a new meteor radar we're developing).  At a data rate 
of around 1MB/s and a 6-hour shower, we need about 25GB of storage that 
can keep up.  The two candidates were a fast tape (AIT or DLT) and lots 
of disk.

If/when someone ponies up the $5k or so that a decent DLT will cost me, 
I'll run it and tell you; certainly my experience with the TK-50 
indicates that frotzing with the mechanism in either the tape or the 
unit is a recipe for certain disaster.

I have some not-so-fond memories of being called over by a FOAF to 
"fix" his TK-50 after he "had a problem" with it.  He'd been playing 
with the cart and misaligned something so that it wound about five 
metres of tangled tape onto the takeup spool before jamming tight, or 
at least that was the condition it was in when _I_ got to see it 8)

mike


> 					Jordan
>